Weather and color, restoration and ruin -- these images build onthe dreamscapes and themes in Geoffrey O'Brien's first book ofpoetry.
O'Brien, the 2003-2004 Holloway Poet at the University ofCalifornia at Berkeley, will read from his collection, "The Gunsand Flags Project," today at The University of Memphis.
The reading, part of The University's spring 2004 River CityWriters Series, will begin at 4 p.m. in Patterson Hall, Room456.
University creative writing faculty said they are enthusiasticabout O'Brien's visit to campus.
"I was very impressed with the opaque characters in his work,"said Mary Leader, award winning poet and U of M assistant Englishprofessor. "They're both clear and opaque. It's unique."
Leader said she was first introduced to O'Brien's work when heappeared on the cover of the November/December 2001 issue ofAmerican Poetry Review.
"The way that his mind moves from place to place is veryinteresting," Leader said. "That's what first attracted me to hiswork."
"The Guns and Flags Project" was published by University ofCalifornia Press in February 2002. His work previously appeared innumerous academic reviews and journals including American PoetryReview, American Letter and Commentary, Boston Review, Fence andDenver Quarterly.
In an early review of O'Brien's first collection, poet ColeSwenson praised the simplicity of the language.
"He uses no word that you wouldn't say just about every day ofyour life. Part of his project is to show just what can be donewith the basics," she said.
The River City Writers Series is in its 27th year and has hostedthree Literature Nobel Prize Winners. O'Brien's visit is the secondof three events on the RCWS calendar for the spring semester.
Today's reading is free and open to the public. Additionalinformation on River City Writers Series events is available at678-2651 or www.people.memphis.edu/~creativelib/.
